Russia to reduce launches of Progress spacecraft to three a year as of 2016

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. The annual number of launches of cargo spacecraft Progress will be reduced to three a year from four as of 2016, the new draft of the federal space program for 2016-2025 says.

In 2018 and 2019 one Progress spacecraft will be launched not from Baikonur, in Kazakhstan, but from the new spaceport Vostochny, currently under construction.

Under the new program the dates for re-equipping the orbital cluster of socio-economic and research satellites of a new generation are postponed by two to five years.

"A number of works have been eliminated from the program and financing reduced of the basic products and cutting-edge technologies, control systems, and research and development," the draft space program runs.

Originally two versions of the program were proposed - inertial and rational. The specialists eventually opted for the latter.

Although the rational option envisages a reduction of clusters of satellites used for communication, remote sensing of the Earth and fundamental space research to the minimum required level, at the same time it guarantees implementation of tasks contained in the document entitled Basics of Space Activities Policy for creating a new generation manned spacecraft, other new generation infrastructures for orbital spaceflights and their flight-testing. By 2025 the readiness for a manned voyage around the mood is to be ensured," the draft space program says.